


The Night Will Be Over Soon

by Lyalius



Series: Don't Be Afraid [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: AO3 has an awkward publishing system, Clementine's thoughts, Cross post with FF, Gen, I suck at tagging, Sad, Season 4 Episode 4 SPOILERS, first post on ao3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 18:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18288290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyalius/pseuds/Lyalius
Summary: Clementine couldn't help but notice how similar she and Lee were. She also couldn't help but hate that AJ was just like her; he didn't deserve that.It wasn't fair.





	The Night Will Be Over Soon

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm not sure how many people actually read these but seriously, do NOT read if you haven't played the game.
> 
> You'll ruin everything and it's not as fun when you know what ALL the decisions are.
> 
> These are my choices so if you don't like them please don't take it out on me. Especially if you haven't played the game(s). They're really not that expensive unless you buy them all at once so if you don't like my decisions then I suggest you play them yourselves. Though honestly it won't be the same since you already know what happens.
> 
> You're supposed to be emotionally traumatized and regret everything you've ever done in life when things go wrong, but if you know what happens then that shock value drops to zilch.
> 
> Well anyway, I don't own The Walking Dead Video Game and to be perfectly honest I have no clue whether to say it's Telltale's or Skybounds now.

Clementine knew. As soon as the axe came down on her leg, she knew it was over. You couldn’t exactly “outrun” a herd when the only thing between you and the ground was using an axe as a crutch. The pain lancing through her entire being and the adrenaline keeping the pain from being debilitating didn’t help much either. The adrenaline would run out eventually and then she would crash, making getting back to the school ten times harder than it already was. Assuming she’d make it that far.

It all felt like it happened in slow motion. AJ’s hand desperately reaching for her own, her stretching as far as she could but she’d made a grievous error. One she knew was the end when she felt a Walker grab hold of her injured leg. The sudden onslaught of pain impaired her movements long enough for it to happen. The sensation she’d always feared would happen causing her stomach to leap into her throat.

It hurt less than she’d thought it would.

Lying on the ground with AJ at her side and them being safe for the moment it was hard to process. She thought she’d be more scared than she actually was. She felt more resigned than anything. It was going to happen. She _knew_ it was going to happen.

“Clem…your leg!”

She didn’t want to look. She _really_ didn’t want to see the mess that her leg was, let alone a potential bite but…she had to make sure. She **_had_** to know whether or not she really got bit and wasn’t just imagining it. Funny, how her brain knew it happened but her heart still had that tiny spark of hope, that maybe she really did imagine it because after all her leg was a mess and hurt like a motherfucker so maybe, just **_maybe_** the Walker grabbing her felt like the sting of teeth.

Taking a slow breath, she pulled aside the remains of her boot and saw the carnage that had become of her leg.

And she saw the six little wounds marking where teeth had sunk into her flesh.

“I got bit.”

It was almost funny how the huge gaping gash that more than likely just missed scraping bone worried her less than the much smaller wound. She could almost see her shinbone but a bite terrified her worse than anything in her entire life. It was even funnier how before she didn’t want to look but now she couldn’t take her eyes off of it. When it finally sunk in she took another breath and tore her eyes away, turning to face AJ instead.

The look he gave her was worse.

 

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

It was weird.

Clementine had always known it would happen; it was a reality that they all had to come to terms with but still she had hoped it wouldn’t have happened so _soon._

Well, “soon” might be a bit of an overstatement. After all, she’d survived in this hell for eight years, way longer than most people had. With five years of that time taking care of a kid, no less. She thought she’d done pretty well despite the circumstances. Except for…well…

She paused in her scanning for potential Walkers getting a bit too close to lock onto the little boy. It was as if they had both been drawn to look at the same time because she caught his eyes sadly looking at her over his shoulder. A part of her was happy that he held her gaze briefly, he’d been doing his best to not look at her and she really couldn’t blame him.

It had been hard to see Lee forcing himself to keep moving for her sake when he’d been bit. Lee was her friend, a close secondary father figure who did his best to keep her safe and happy. His death still haunted her to this day. But…

It must be harder for AJ.

Clementine loved Lee with all her heart but the reality of her parents being dead still stung more. At least she didn’t see how it happened.

They’d never talked about it but she knew they shared similar thoughts in what they meant to each other. There really hadn’t been a need to, they loved each other and that was what mattered most but still…

It must be hard seeing the person you consider your everything half dragging a fucked up leg through the woods, barely able to keep up with the snail pace they were traveling at.  

Oh and the reality that she was going to die looming over them. In a few hours she wouldn’t be his Clementine anymore, not the girl who loved him unconditionally and would do anything and everything for him. She’d be a Walker…unless she could convince him to go through with his promise.

God she really wished AJ would never have to fulfill it but it was something he had to learn eventually, as much as she’d loathed to admit it. The hardest thing to do was…putting down someone you loved. Unfortunately it was something you’d have to do eventually. It wasn’t fair to him or her or anyone else who had to go through with it but it had to happen. She just wished it hadn’t been so soon.

“Hey, I love you.”

They stopped, AJ still refusing to look at her.

He was still so young and after his tantrum in the cave just a few hours ago, more confused than ever. He _needed_ her. The other kids would never understand, they’d never be able to help guide him through the chaos that was figure out where to draw the line; where killing became _murder_ instead of necessary to survive. She was the only one truly capable of helping him through this.

After all, she walked the darker path at one point in time. The path where she _enjoyed_ killing. She’d spent many nights justifying her actions in her head; The New Frontier _stole_ AJ from her. They didn’t even let her see him in what she thought were his final days, just up and separated them. She would’ve been happy as a fucking mistreated prisoner if it meant she could still be with him for fucks sake. But no, they tore him right from her arms despite his cries and her screams.

So they deserved her ire. They were nothing but monsters.

Clementine couldn’t let AJ go down that path. She couldn’t let him become a true murderer; like her.

But she couldn’t help him anymore. He fucking **_needed her_** and she had gone and stupidly gotten herself bit. Now she really would have to trust him to make his own decisions, to be his own person.

To live life without her.

“Don’t ever forget that.”

A sad look shared then, “I love you too, Clem.”

It wasn’t fair.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Clementine hated flashbacks. She hated déjà vu even more. But what she hated most of all, was feeling completely helpless. She hated that her body was giving out on her when she needed it the most. _Was this how Lee felt?_

_“I’ll help you.” A stumble, “I got you. You can lean on me if you need to.”_

She could barely feel her leg. She dropped to her knee.

“C’mon Clem we can make it!”

A grown man’s arm draped over her shoulders and her hand pressed against his lower back turned into her own arm draped over the shoulder of a young boy, his arm wrapping around her back.

_“Clementine can you look for something to stick in-between the handles! Something real strong, okay?!”_

“We need to find something to stick between the handles.”

A cane became a pitchfork.

_“You don’t have much time. You gotta do something, fast.”_

“We need to get these pen doors closed…before they break through.”

Lee’s voice became her voice, instructing and encouraging. They were only able to offer words and support where they could.

“ _Use the bat to shatter that window so you can reach in, okay?”_

“Hurry, AJ! Cut it!”

A bat became a knife.

_“I think there might be a way out over there.”_

“We can climb up there. The monsters can’t reach us up there.”

_“Get up, Lee. The door’s right here!”_

“Let’s go. Easy climb. C’mon.”

Her voice became AJ’s voice.

_“Please, **please!** Try to get up!”_

“Please…try!”

_“I can’t. This is it for me here.”_

“You can’t give up. You can’t give up!”

Her body became Lee’s body, unable to move despite how desperately she wanted to; how AJ desperately begged her to.

“I need you!”

_“You can take care of yourself, see?”_

“You don’t need me. Not anymore.” Clementine said. She tilted her head, gesturing to the room at large. “Look what you did. All by yourself.”

If history was really going to repeat itself, she’d be damned if she didn’t do what Lee had done for her. Even in his final moments he was a pillar of strength, just for her. As terrified as she was at leaving AJ she needed to be strong for him. _Was Lee this scared?_

“My little goofball.” Clementine smiled and laughed when she wanted to break down and cry.

“It’s Alvin Junior.” He protested half-heartedly.

Her smile became more real, more bittersweet. “You’ll always be goofball to me.”

He refused to look at her. She couldn’t blame him, she probably looked horrible. Someone on the brink of turning was a sorry sight, sickly pale with ever darkening shadows blooming under their eyes which struggled to stay open. At least the pain was dulling since her leg was getting number by the minute. She wondered if it was normal to lose all feeling in the area of a bite.

“Hey. Look at me.” AJ’s face scrunched up. He was on the verge of crying. “AJ…please.”

He finally did, but did her one better by coming closer and kneeling at her side. She was more than grateful.

Clementine couldn’t help but cup his cheek with a smile, “You’re such a cutie. How did I get so lucky?” There it was, the unspoken feelings between them flooding their eyes instead. She hated that it was tinged with so much sadness, hated that he wasn’t smiling. Not that she really expected him to smile in this situation but he always looked cuter with a smile on his face.

She’d be damned if she didn’t try something.

She smiled playfully, drawing back just enough to tap the tip of his nose with a finger. He briefly went cross eyed before locking eyes with her. “Gotcha.” It didn’t quite have the desired effect, with his face scrunching up a little more but it was something familiar, something easy. Something completely, wonderfully silly that she still did from time to time despite his protests.

She remembered the first time she ever tried it.

She remembered how easily it made him smile and laugh.

She never understood why it made him laugh so much but his smile and laugh always made things just a bit brighter for her. She was addicted to his laugh.

AJ wasn’t laughing now. “Please. Don’t…don’t be silly right now.”

Clementine would never hear him laugh again.

“I just wanted to see you smile. One last time.”

“Don’t say that.” She hated the look on his face, “Please…don’t say that.”

It seemed she wouldn’t be able to get a smile either. She tried not to dwell on how much that hurt.

He was right though. She had to focus. She had to make sure he could handle himself, just like Lee had done for her.

“I need to make sure that you remember.”

“Remember what?”

“The rules. What’s number one?”

“Never…never go alone. So I can’t leave. Not without you.” AJ stubbornly insisted.

Well that backfired. She was supposed to be encouraging him not making him _more_ resolute in his decision to stay.

She sighed, “AJ—“

“It’s _your_ rule!”

“You won’t be alone. Not for long. Get back to the school.”

Unfortunately they were both stubborn. _Did he get that from her?_ Probably.

“I don’t know how.”

_Liar. I’ve been teaching you how to navigate since you could walk._

“Sure you do.” She tried for a smile again, “One of the first things I ever taught you. You need to make sure they can’t smell you and there’s a fresh, juicy walker just waiting to be gutted.”

AJ gave her another sad look before doing what he was told, like the good boy he was. But without him to focus on Clementine felt a surge of emotions nearly bowl her over. She was going to die. She was _really_ going to die. This was it. Everyone had been right; her love for AJ was her downfall in the end. But even though that was true she couldn’t bring herself to regret anything. He was _her little boy._ He was her family. She would do anything and everything in her power to keep him safe.

He was her best friend, her brother, her _son_. She loved him more than anything else in the whole world.

Clementine regretted nothing but she still couldn’t stop the shaking. She couldn’t cry, not _now_. She’d have plenty of time to cry when she was dead. _AJ. Focus on AJ._

_Is that how Lee pushed through it? By focusing on her?_

“Next rule: What do we do when the monster’s come?”

“Clem…” No, he _had_ to keep talking. He _had_ to let her know he would be alright and he remembered everything she taught him.

“AJ.” _I know this is hard for you AJ, but I **need** to hear you say it._

She could see the reluctance in his posture when he turned around. “We shoot them in the head.”

That reminds her…

“Got any more ammo?” Her heart dropped when he voiced the negative. Her eyes fell onto the axe in his hands. “Okay then. Fuck.” _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuuck._ Shooting someone in the head was a nice and clean kill, anything else you could miss or potentially not swing hard enough to kill on the first try. Clementine’s heart started pounding and she wanted to both curse the gods and laugh hysterically because _really?_ This was the way she was going to go?

Was she really so bad that she deserved an axe to the head instead of a quick, less terrifying death?

God really was a cruel bastard wasn’t he?

Clementine swallowed thickly, “And the last rule?”

AJ hesitated. _Oh no._ “I want to stay. With you.” _No, no, no, AJ._ “I know what’ll happen.” _This isn’t what I taught you._ “And I don’t care. I don’t want to go.” _You were supposed to be stronger than me._ “I just want to sit next to you and stay.” _Why?_

“Like that monster couple, from the train station. No one would hurt us. Just sitting…forever.”

_Figures her lesson on respecting other people’s wishes would come back to bite her. Heh. Bite._

If they’d both been bitten then that…didn’t sound like a terrible idea. But only she was bitten.

And she refused to be the one to bite him. She refused to be the one to cut his life short when he still had so much growing to do. He’d become an even better person that she ever was, she knew he could. That he **_would_**. But god his pleading shattered her already broken heart to pieces.

“Sorry, kid, but no. I have a job for you.” Clementine wouldn’t cry. She _couldn’t_ cry, not now. “I need you to get back to your room, I need you to sleep in your bed, and have friends and grow tall.” She couldn’t help but add, “Taller than I ever was, I hope.” She knew that even with all the growing she’d done, she was still short. She could’ve sworn both her parents were tall so that was just another unfair aspect of her life to add to the pile.

She swallowed.

“I need you to live, AJ. For me. _That’s_ your job now.” The look AJ gave her…he was finally accepting what was to come. She was thankful for that.

The Walkers surrounding them rudely reminded both kids that they still existed, that their bloodlust was still drawing them in. To _her_ since she was the only one who smelled like a human anymore. For now.

She tried not to think about it.

“Last rule.”

“No!”

She hated that she had to do this.

“What do we do, if I get bit?”

It seems that was the last straw for AJ who finally broke down. His tears were like a heel of a boot grinding the shattered remains of her heart into dust.

“Are you going to make me say it?” She didn’t want to be cruel but she didn’t want to turn into more of a monster than she already was. She hated that this was still a lesson he needed to learn. She always dreaded the day she’d have to teach it to him. “Fine. AJ you have to kill me.” She swallowed back her tears when he looked at her again. His face wearing the most awful combination of disbelief and tears as he stared at her.

“Don’t let me become one of them.” He was still hesitating. “Be a good boy.” He didn’t want to listen, and she didn’t want to say it again.

But she had to.

She remembered when she was just a little girl back before all hell broke loose. She remembered TV commercials talking about suicide and how a person should seek help if those thoughts were ever to cross their mind.

She wondered if her parents would be disappointed in her. After all, they had explained that it was wrong to want to die. That there was _always_ something to live for.

Too bad the world didn’t work like that anymore. Still the memories of a time where everything was peaceful bothered her. They made the words that fell from her lips leave a bad taste in her mouth.

She took a deep breath.

“Kill me.”

They also scared the shit out of her.

She wished she knew what he was thinking. There was blatant heartbreak written all over his face, more obvious than his tears but there was also something else there. She wondered if he was remembering their life together, like she had done with Lee. Like she was doing now.

His lower lip trembled.

“No…”

She wondered if Lee had felt the acid rain painfully pelting the remaining dust of her heart.

She wondered if Lee hated himself for asking her to fulfill such a selfish wish while trying to justify it by thinking she’d have to do this eventually.

She wondered if Lee felt love when he looked at her for the last time, despite the weapon aimed at his head.

She wondered if Lee felt scared when he closed his eyes.

She wondered if Lee felt an odd combination of peace mix in with the fear as he bowed his head.

She wondered if Lee regretted not saying he loved her before he died.

She knew she did.

**Author's Note:**

> Say something if I made stupid mistakes and didn't notice. Except the majority of the fragmented sentences. Word wouldn't leave me alone but I wanted them that way god dammit.
> 
> I didn't spoil anything for Episode 4, I even avoided YT and social media in general for awhile once I heard about the trailer. Which means everything was a surprise...except the Ranch. Melissa let it slip that it would be in Episode 4 so that wasn't a surprise sadly.
> 
> So it meant I was getting punched left and right in the stomach. I also cried for at least 20 minutes. Seriously, I recorded my reactions when playing and I legit have myself sobbing into the mic. If only I had a facecam...
> 
> There IS a sequel but I'm staring at it and to be honest, I'm still staring at this one. I'm one of those authors who's super paranoid about my grammar and punctuation...don't judge me. It's hard to judge when to use a comma or semicolon at times.


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